Safari, Tanzania

Jambo! I have returned from sunny, beautiful Africa! I hope you are all well and I’m pleased to see that the weather in the UK is just as lovely as it is in Tanzania. I’ve got a few photos from my trip to the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, where I spent 3 days with my family.

After a 9 hour plane ride to Kenya, then a 2 hour ride to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, we boarded a little 12 seater plane for 45 minutes to zip over to the reserve. We literally landed in the middle of nowhere, on a little dirt strip in the wild.

We were greeted by the most friendly of people to jump into our open air safari jeep. We were expecting a quick drive to our camp, but spotted a few things along the way…

We arrived at Lake Manze Camp with newly revived energy from our sightings, and after a delicious lunch, were shown to our lovely tents.

It was amazing to have an ensuite bathroom with no roof – I’ve never showered in the wild before! Everyone dined together along a long, candlelit table (there was no electricity at all at Lake Manze Camp), then we were shown through the dark back to our tents by the Massai, who also woke us at 6am for a game drive and bush breakfast.

After some driving and spotting more beautiful animals, our guides whipped up some breakfast as if out of nowhere, and we settled by the lake to munch on bananas, safari jam, sweet bread, and eggs, washed down with mango juice. They then took us to the next camp we were staying at, Rufiji River Camp, where we were taken on our first river safari.

And that was just our first 24 hours in Africa! We spent the next two days at Rufiji River Camp, where we had electricity for two hours a day, which already felt like luxury! My family and I loved both accommodations, but fell in love with Lake Manze as it was a little less ‘up-market’ and felt like we were staying in the wild a bit more. There were more personal touches, friendly staff, and eating with the other guests was fun. But if you prefer a bit more luxury (like a pool!), Rufiji River Camp might be for you. Though there are a few crazy monkeys roaming around the camp!

Over the next two days we went on a couple more game drives, another river safari, and a 6am bush walk. A safari holiday is pretty busy! In between we lounged by the pool and ate a lot of the delicious food – heaps of fruit, warm cinnamon rolls for breakfast, delicious cake for snacks, and three course meals by the river in the evening.

Sorry for the long post – I took 790 photos in total so it was hard to narrow them down!